Recent entries

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9652 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    With Lift part of the inspiration was-- Boy, what was the inspiration for Lift? When I was building The Stormlight Archive I said, "I want the Knights Radiant to run the gamut of different character styles, ages, and types of story." And when you say "knight"--when I say knight you imagine one thing. What you don't imagine is a thirteen-year-old Hispanic girl, right? And I said "I want to have the people that are in the Knights Radiant to not be the standard what you think of." They are the entire world's cultures having different people. And so I said "Well, what is somebody who does not fit that mold?" That you would say is not a knight. Lift was partially developed out of me wanting to build a character who was awesome but was so different from what everyone would think of. 'Cause you say knight and they think of white dude in armor, and I wanted something very different from that. And that's where she came from. It also came partially from my wife reading a lot of fantasy and complaining that she's like, "you know the Asians show up in fantasy a lot, Asian culture inspires a lot. European culture of course does. You see a lot of these things but where are the Hispanics?"

    *audience laughs*

    ...Yeah there's one. So she challenged me to put a Hispanic culture in my books because I had never done it before, and so Lift is an outgrowth of that, so are the Herdazians. They are meant to be sort of in the same way that the Alethi are inspired by Korean culture, mashed up with this sort of concept of medieval knights. The same way Shallan is based a little off of Western American/Europe culture. The Herdazians are launching off some of the original Hispanic concepts. So the thing is, you want every culture to be new and original but you are working from somewhere. And the problem is we all work from the same stories for so long that is part of the reason why fantasy is starting to feel so stale.

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
    #9653 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    A question that has it's roots in Dragonsteel. When Ruin changes words, is he actually changing words,or is he changing what people see?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Did we canonize this question Peter? I'm pretty sure we did. I thought we answered this one already.

    Let's just say that most of the time, Ruin was searching for a place to transition, where he could change what was being trans-transcribed. Or what was being heard, or what was being said.

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    That's pretty interesting. 

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    So the easiest time for him is when a scribe is writing in a new book, he's copying a new book down, and he just pops in and changes the words.

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Okay. That makes sense. 

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9655 Copy

    Questioner

    Lift stands outside Kredik Shaw, her goal is to eat the Lord Ruler's lunch, can she get away with it?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I think she totally can. She's Lift, she'll just get him while he's sleeping.

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9656 Copy

    Isaac Stewart

    The glyphs don't really relate to pronunciation. You learn them by seeing the glyph and knowing what the word is for that. But the people, the people who create the glyphs have a different process from ones who read them.

    Questioner

    *inaudible*

    Isaac Stewart

    It can be pretty challenging to draw the glyphs. We usually go through several different iterations of different looks of things before we come up with something that we like.

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
    #9657 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Is there some reason why both Vin and Kelsier are half-skaa, half-noble, both natural Allomancers, both end up overthrowing the Lord Ruler, and have siblings that are seekers.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Both were heavily influenced by Ruin in doing what they were doing. So there is a connection there, maybe not the one you're looking for, but Ruin was looking for talented Mistborn that were easy to manipulate and talented Mistborn tend to come from talented Mistborn lines, and so Ruin is looking for that, and they both end up fitting that role. And the thing is, is that the half breeds ended up being easier for him to manipulate and easier lost in the shuffle of things, so they weren't paid attention to as much by the Ministry, because the Ministry didn't know about them.

    So it's mostly coincidental for what Ruin's trying to achieve

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9658 Copy

    Questioner

    Did Ben or Isaac design the glyphs in The Stormlight Archive?

    Isaac Stewart

    I did. So here's an interesting thing the-- no I'm not going to tell you that. *lots of laughter* I think it would be a spoiler for Book 3. Bridge Four in Alethi, you guys ready? Vev Gesheh. Vev is the number four, Gesheh is bridge... When I design the glyphs, I always make sure I know how to say it in Alethi before I design the glyph.

    Ben McSweeney

    Is there a reason for that?

    Isaac Stewart

    There is a reason for that.

    Ben McSweeney

    Are you going to tell us what that reason is?

    Isaac Stewart

    Nope. The glyph writing system is just a-- You are supposed to be able to look at it and say "Hey that's--that means bridge" but it could be elongated, it could be changed, it could be--but the same shapes are in there and that means "bridge" or whatever else that is.

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
    #9659 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Why did OreSeur signup for Kelsier’s plan. Was he forced to because of his contract? Or did he actually want to do it?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    All kandra want to be back in the Homeland. That said, OreSeur, he as a kandra, likes challenges, and was a real method kandra, a lot of them are, but he truly was. And you can see that in him. So for him, the contract and the role he plays... 

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Are more important than what he actually wants.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Yeah. Even though he had spent all this time doing this stuff. So he was part of it, but for him, his role was being this person. If I may.

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    That's interesting. 

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9660 Copy

    Brandon Sanderson

    Hoid waxes poetic on the idea that the more people expect, the more difficult it becomes for the artist. This is more the critic in me having noticed that my own expectations for a piece play dramatically into how much I enjoy it. Some of my best experiences at the cinema have been films where I had no idea what to expect. The Sixth Sense was like this for me. I had never heard of the film, my friends dragged me to it, they said it's a horror and I said "I'm not sure if I want to watch a slasher pic, but I think it's going to be terrible but whatever." And I watched it and it was a great movie and I came out of it saying, "Wow, I did not expect that." And yet something like The Dark Knight Returns, which is a fantastic film, well done. Yet the second film was so good that I went into the third film and it wasn't quite as good as the second film and I came out and said, "Eh." Where it is a great film and yet my expectations-- It's unfair to the artist but it is the way I think a lot of us work. That our expectations do play a lot into how our experience is for the story. A lot of things when I go into things like that, I'm not trying to let the author speak so much as I'm trying to say what would someone who analyzes art like a critic in my analyzes art what would be an observation they would make. Hoid is not me and he does not voice necessarily my personal opinions, but he is an artist and a critic and so he notices some of the things I notice.  

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9663 Copy

    Questioner

    Are we going to see any chapters that are expressly Hoid now that he is becoming more and more important?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You have seen two. Are you going to see more? Yes. I would say that if you look at the structure of the first two Stormlight books, you will find several themes and those themes are likely to be repeated in future books. And Hoid does like having the last word. *laughter*

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
    #9665 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    A question related to that. There's an idea going around that all the spren that can Nahel Bond, all Knight Radiant spren are called honorspren, and then Nohadon talks specifically about honorspren. Is that the case? You know, is it just the Windrunner spren, or is it all the spren?

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    I'm going to deal with this in the next book. So I'll just go ahead and let it be a literal RAFO. It is coming.

    *interruption, leading Brandon to lose his train of though*

    So what we are dealing with here is that all spren are indeed all pieces of the one who has gone, so those spren are all- except the Windrunner spren, the spren like Syl, have certain umm.

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Nohadon mentioned that "All the spren aren't as discerning as honorspren."

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    So there has been dissension among them about who gets to call themselves honorspren, if that makes sense, and there is some disagreement among scholars about which ones are really, you know "This is what defines an honorspren".

    But the spren you are running into are all *inaudible* of either Honor or Cultivation, or some mixture between them. And you can usually tell the ones that are more Honor, and the ones that are more Cultivation. That should be able to be *inaudible*.

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9666 Copy

    Questioner

    When will we see a Hoid book?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You will see a Hoid book-- You will not see a Hoid book until I finish the first five books of Stormlight and the next Mistborn trilogy at the earliest. More likely it's after Stormlight is done.

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
    #9668 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    There is a debate on what to call Shallan's Symbols, so we don't have such an ambiguous term for it .

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    The Symbolhead?

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Yeah, the Symbolhead, Shallanspren.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    *laughter*

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    We don't really know what to call them.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Do I want to canonize this yet?

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    You don't have to canonize it yet.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    I don't know if I want to canonize it yet. But I will say this. They are spren, that should be pretty obvious. They are the spren connected to what Shallan is capable of doing. But I don’t know if I want to canonize it yet. Truthspren is as good a name as any, and I would suggest you use that until further notice.

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9669 Copy

    Questioner

    When will second book of Legion be out on Audible?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Probably, I think November 1st is the scheduled release date and I think Audible--I can't promise this--but I think we are going to do the same thing we did with the first one, which is it will be free on Audible for like the first two months because they are short enough that charging a full credit for them is kind of, you know, they are one-third of a book, right? But you can't really split a credit into one-third credits. So if you do want to go buy Legion off of Audible, the Audible version is very nice and I think they sell it for five bucks or something, don't use a credit just go spend five bucks on it. And the second one--we did that one free for the first few months, and I think we may do the second one free for the first few months also.

    Questioner

    Are they planning to go that for Infinity Blade, like for an Audible release?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I don't think there are plans right now, but the fact that you are interested makes me think maybe we should ask if they are interested.

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9670 Copy

    WeiryWriter

    Current status of the White Sand graphic novel?

    Brandon Sanderson

    We have chosen a writer and the writing is quite good. We are very pleased with it, the person who's adapting the story. We have not chosen the artist yet, we have had several that have been sent to us. Each of them are doing an application with their art and we are now choosing among them. So if there's-- We are looking for professional comic book and graphic novel illustrators and so if there happened to be one of you out there who has done professional work in this field and has done--you have to be willing to commit to doing a lot of work and you have to work with Dynamite and things like this. Then you are more than welcome to contact us, but I think we are close to picking somebody.

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9672 Copy

    Questioner

    How much more do you want to write about Stephen Leeds?

    Brandon Sanderson

    How much more do I want to write about Stephen Leeds, from Legion? I want to write a decent amount more. I have finished Legion 2, which you may have noticed, which is called Legion: Skin Deep. I had a really great name for a title, but I don't know if I can use it because Skin Deep is a reference to beauty, right? But I thought a great title would be Legion: Lies of the Beholder. I like the pun on that but that is also "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" so I can't make them all puns off of beauty. The original concept with Legion was to do a short that would--I imagine being a television show, it's how I imagined it and I wanted to do future episodes, so to speak. I particularly love the episode format they are doing for Sherlock on the BBC, if you guys have seen that, where your season is three hour-and-a-half long mini movies basically. And I love that format for a television show, I wish we could get more television shows doing that. I would rather sink my teeth into an hour-and-a-half long episode that has character growth, real growth and development, progress and the next one doesn't just hit the reset button and say, another adventure. It is progressing the characters further. I'd rather get three of those in a season than a twenty-two episode where of those episodes eighteen are just yet another adventure with no progress. And so--anyway that's how I imagine that.

    Questioner

    When Legion came out there was talk Hollywood was already interested.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes, we sold the rights and then they let them lapse. They kept the rights for two years and they let them lapse.

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9673 Copy

    Questioner

    What was the reason for choosing the base form of Shardblades as blades, why not another form? Was it because of the spren?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Why was the base form of Shardblades chosen to as blades, as swords? It is because the Shardblades were devised... They were devised as imitations of the Honorblades, which were created and given to the Heralds. And so since the original pattern was the Honorblades, they were built to feel like the Honorblades.

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9675 Copy

    Questioner

    Will you tell us a little about the sword from Warbreaker?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Nightblood is a weapon that I devised. He is partially inspired by my love of Michael Moorcock's writing. He was built into the cosmere using many of the foundational cosmere magic system things that exist on multiple worlds.

    Writing for Charity Conference ()
    #9676 Copy

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    In Well of Ascension, there are two strange "voice in the head" experiences. One of them is with Sazed and Marsh are fighting, and Sazed realizes that he can burn the metal rings that are now in his stomach. But the other one is with Elend, when a voice comes, and he's not sure where it comes from. It says something like "If you have a dagger, the only way to win is to go in for the kill"

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    That one, where it came from, is – I know what you are searching for, but it's actually just an old *inaudible* from weapons training. He's just dredging- he's not sure where it came from because he never thought he would need any of it, he thought he was just going to be a scholar. But his father did have him trained in weapons, so it's just instinct that he got from one of his old mentors in fighting.

    So there's nothing to see there, so no, he's not *inaudible*

    Zas678 (paraphrased)

    Okay. We were just wondering if it was Preservation, or Kelsier.

    Brandon Sanderson (paraphrased)

    Nope. Unfortunately, no. I do that on occasion, but this time...

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9679 Copy

    Questioner

    Any hints at the thing hiding in the maps of Roshar?

    Brandon Sanderson

    The map of Roshar, what hints can I give you? The same thing is hiding in all of the maps of Roshar. All of the ones we have done so far have the same thing.

    Footnote: This is referencing the fact that the shape of the Rosharan continent is based on the shape of a Julia set.
    #roshar
    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9680 Copy

    Questioner

    When are you going to work on the next Mistborn book?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Right now I am going to write Rithmatist 2, followed by Stormlight 3, and the next Mistborn book [Shadows of Self] is going to come after that. Tor has asked that I write the next Stormlight book before I write the next Mistborn books, so I will be doing that. I do have a chunk of the sequel written, but I had to put off writing it until later.

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9682 Copy

    Questioner

    Alcatraz?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Alcatraz 5. When am I going to write Alcatraz 5? I have a few things on my plate but I do want to finish it. I have re-releases of the series coming out next year probably. We sold the series to Tor, I bought it back from Scholastic. We are repackaging them with new covers and we are hiring an illustrator to illustrate them, to have cool illustrations all through the book. It looks like we'll do 25-30, little half-pagers and things like that through the book. We're doing a map, Isaac is commissioning a very nice map. And then we are going to re-release them and so I will try to have Book 5 come out when we have that going.

    JordanCon 2014 ()
    #9683 Copy

    WeiryWriter

    What are Cultivation's feelings with regards to the Stormfather?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Cultivation's feelings... Cultivation is, *long pause* I just have to decide how I can say things that are not spoilers. Cultivation-- The Stormfather reminds her of certain things about someone else she knew, and she feels the same way about the Stormfather in some ways as this person that she knew.

    Calamity release party ()
    #9684 Copy

    Llwvyn

    Hoid has said that what he does, when he heals or comes back to life or whatever, heals the soul

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes.

    Llwvyn

    But Hemalurgy is like ripping off a piece of the soul. Could he heal that?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It is possible. Well, his particular brand of healing is very Spiritual Realm based. And so, it would-- he could. Not all brands of healing are capable. It depends on what's happening, and things like that. But yes, he would. Most Shardbearers [Surgebinders?] when they're in the throes of their powers would heal spiritually. *brief pause* Not all of them. Not all healing will do that, though.

    Llwvyn

    Yeah. Because I was thinking that maybe you could spike him multiple times and compound his power.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yes. Spiking him could do some weird things though. But spiking can do weird things to anyone.

    Calamity Chicago signing ()
    #9686 Copy

    Questioner

    Can you tell us about a cultural inspiration you’ve used in a world that we have not seen?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I wrote one that was based off of Mesoamerican- there’s a tribe out of Costa Rica. And I didn’t get the story done, but I used that one… it was really an obscure tribe, which made it really hard to name things and stuff like that. What else have I done that you haven’t seen… <thinking noises> There’s Polynesian stuff you haven’t seen, but you’ve also seen a lot of it [already], so…

    Footnote: The transcript uncertainly attributes the question to Alterodent. Check?
    #review transcription
    Calamity Chicago signing ()
    #9687 Copy

    Questioner

    In Scadrial the amount of investiture in humans from Preservation, aka, the amount of Mistborn and mist powers, is that decreasing or just being diffused among the population?

    Brandon Sanderson

    That power is being diffused among the population, though everybody has some of it already. That power is not.

    Shadows of Self release party ()
    #9688 Copy

    FeatherWriter

    Are Renarin's visions compulsive or involuntary?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Renarin's visions are-- have an element of that to them... So I'll ask you a question in return.

    FeatherWriter

    Okay.

    Brandon Sanderson

    How do Rosharans view seeing the future?

    FeatherWriter

    Oh yeah, very bad. Of Odium.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yep. They sure do.

    Calamity Chicago signing ()
    #9689 Copy

    Questioner

    Is there a orbitary range limiter placed on the powers of an Epic, or does it vary from person to person?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It differs from person to person.

    Questioner

    So, for Chicago, what was the range of the city turning into...

    Brandon Sanderson

    I've got it in my notes. It was basically enough to get me to Soldier Field, because that's where *inaudible*, does that make sense? I thought we'd go to Soldier Field, and then a little ways.

    Questioner #1

    Like a mile?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's a bit more than a mile, it's a couple miles. But the guy who said "7 miles" and I'm like "Yeah, you could be in danger".

    Argent

    The question is, where was [Steelheart] standing when did [the Grand Transfersion].

    Brandon Sanderson

    He was in a bank that I actually looked up, that was in downtown, and I changed the name of it. [...] The problem was, it went that far into the lake as well, and I wanted to get a good chunk of the lake, but not like, you know... and so, it's probably like four mile radius or something like that, so the seven mile radius guy is probably okay. I wanted to get downtown, Soldier Field, a little bit beyond...

    Questioner

    Chicago proper.

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah.

    Calamity Chicago signing ()
    #9690 Copy

    Questioner

    [...] For the picture of all the Radiants and their surges, in the background there’s two dragons. Are those just--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Those are not dragons. Those are little beasties from the world. You’ve seen them before.

    Argent

    Larkin?

    Brandon Sanderson

    Yeah. But you can call them "dragon bugs" if you want, that’s what Isaac called them when I described them.

    Questioner

    So are they just from the world, or do they have any over-reaching signif--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Well they have a certain ability that you may have seen in-world, which is pretty distinctive and different, and so they have a lot of mythological import. They are not widely known by most cultures right now.

    Calamity Chicago signing ()
    #9692 Copy

    Argent

    If a Shard wanted to affect another Shard’s magic system, would they need to Invest themselves in the world, or can they just kind of show up and do things?

    Brandon Sanderson

    “Affect their magic system”? What do you mean by that?

    Argent

    So for Roshar, let’s say additional Surges or modified Surges. For Scadrial different metals. For Nalthis--

    Brandon Sanderson

    That would require more than just showing up.

    Calamity Chicago signing ()
    #9693 Copy

    Kurkistan

    Is there such a thing as a Feruchemical savant?

    Brandon Sanderson

    I did not write Feruchemical savants into the original outline. Whether or not I will do them- it’s highly unlikely because it’s not there and Mistborn is getting trickier and trickier in that regard. But I didn’t write them in, so… that’s a “probably not”.

    Shadows of Self release party ()
    #9695 Copy

    Questioner

    The YA book you were talking about earlier, is that Dark One? That your doing for--

    Brandon Sanderson

    I'm not doing Dark One. I pitched it to them and they decided one of my other pitches they liked better. The Apocalypse Guard... So the Apocalypse Guard is-- So people have started to explore the multiverse and found that there are dimensions in which the planet is doomed to some catastrophe. It's going to extinction event. And the Apocalypse Guard is a group of scientists, soldiers, and experts who save the planet that they have discovered that is doomed. So it's about saving planets.

    zas678

    That sounds very non-cosmere.

    Brandon Sanderson

    It's non-cosmere. But you have, if you've been reading non-cosmere books-- there's another non-cosmere book which explores the concept of a multiverse and alternate dimensions. It might be in the same continuity.

    Shadows of Self release party ()
    #9698 Copy

    KalynaAnne

    Chalklings, we know, can catch rides off of Nebrask. If Melody had chalklings on a slate and carried them around, could she give them verbal commands later, after she had made them?

    Brandon Sanderson

    You will have to find out how her magic works as we progress. Everyone would say "No, that's not possible" but she had done things that are supposedly-- that seem impossible. So what you are proposing is probably likely, probably possible, but it depends on her magic.

    Shadows of Self release party ()
    #9699 Copy

    KalynaAnne

    So you have circles, or Lines of Warding. If you draw a semi-circle, like if a Rithmatist was backed up against a wall, can just a semi-circle act as a Line of Warding?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It can, but the sides are going to be so weak. I mean they can just go around it, but yes, the semi-circle would work.

    KalynaAnne

    So if you drew a semi-circle, and drew the other half up the wall--

    Brandon Sanderson

    That would be fine.

    KalynaAnne

    Would it be equally strong as if it was all flat on the ground?

    Brandon Sanderson

    It would probably-- It would be really hard to get that corner so it would be. In theoretical, magical Christmasland, yes. 'Cause chalklings are two-dimensional, so they don't even see that it's changed really. I mean it does but--

    Shadows of Self release party ()
    #9700 Copy

    KalynaAnne

    If you drew a Line of Forbiddance on, like, a slate and then you can hold the slate--

    Brandon Sanderson

    Moving stuff around starts playing with things. So I'm going to say, I will deal with that in the next book but it doesn't work how you want it to work.

    KalynaAnne

    Okay, I'll accept that answer.

    Brandon Sanderson

    For logistical reasons, when I was building the magic, I was "Ehhh, we've got to not have this be possible."